Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Kibera: Can clean guys please stand up!

Let me open by saying that I do not subscribe to Ndura Waruinge and his Mungiki doctrine. Ndura Waruinge is a cold murderer should be in jail. My opinion on what happened in Kibera should therefore not be taken or be used to support Mungiki’s cause –if at all they nave one.

Before I go on, I will like to point out that in a democracy, even the devil has a right to be heard. In any civilized country, the police are given an obligation to be custodians of the law and to enforce the law. Taking the law in ones hands is deemed illegal.

In Kenya we have such a police force. Its members are recruited from almost all ethnic groups of Kenya. I have never seen a Mr. Singh in police uniform. But I have also never met a Mr. Singh complaining that the force refused to hire him. We can however say that our police force is pretty much a picture of Kenya even though we have never met Singhs, Smiths, and Patels donning the blue outfit. I therefore will not be wrong if I said that ours is not a Kikuyu police force but a Kenyan one.

In the recent past, we have seen policemen engage the public in cat and mouse games. Some of these police actions were justified while others were a total abuse of power. We have seen some political interference in the way police conducts its operations.

When the police go into these operations, probability dictates that there will be a Mogaka, Atieno, Kiprotich, Wanjiru, Mohamed, Nafula, etc involved. I have never heard of a scenario where senior police officers only enlisted the services of Kamau, Maina and Njoki. It ridiculous when politicians come out a present it as though the police force is Kikuyu.

But what happened in Kibera?

If you are an Agwambonista you will say this was a clear case of a Kikuyu police force out to finish the Luos. You will go on to defend your fellow Agwambonistas claiming that they were justified to stone both Mungiki and the Kikuyu police force. In your opinion Ndura Waruinge is a criminal who should not address any meeting in Kibera.

If you are the Mungiki chief you will say: "I am going to stop at nothing until I make sure I express my feelings. I was peaceful until provoked and now I want to let Raila know that fire shall be returned with fire and I will make sure that I stop all the ODM rallies that will take place in Nairobi until I am given a chance to hold my rally."

Now let us look at what really happened.

The East African Standard says:

Waruinge had earlier called off his planned rally after police barred him from accessing the Laini Saba venue of his meeting.

Police were almost overwhelmed by chaos when at one time the rioting youth set upon a passing goods train with rocks, injuring the driver and forcing the train to come to a halt. The rain driver suffered a deep cut on the head.

At Gatwikira, which was the centre of the skirmishes, a police bullet ripped the skull of a young man whose body was left lying on the railway line.

As the two equipment trucks were escorted out of the venue sandwiched between a police van and a lorry load of armed police, some youths started pelting the vehicles with stones shattering their windscreens.

… the irate mob surged menacingly towards the trucks threatening to burn them down.This prompted the police to lob tear gas canisters to repulse them, which triggered the bloody encounter that lasted for more than four hours.One officer at the scene claimed some youth had guns and fired at police, forcing them to retaliate by firing at them.

Trouble started at around 8am at an open ground at the Laini Saba area, the venue of the planned rally. A gang opposed to the rally had stormed the ground, forcing thoEven with police presence at the grounds, people who were suspected to have supported the rally were beaten with sticks and clubs. se who had gathered to flee.An attempt to set the company's (Nairobi Projectors Services) vehicles on fire was thwarted by police. However, the driver escaped narrowly after the vehicle's windscreen was shattered by a stone.

Nairobi police boss Njue Njagi said the two were shot in the head and stomach, adding that some of the protesters had firearms.At one point, the Nation spotted a man in the crowd firing at a group of police officers, forcing them to take cover

The Kenya Times says:

The deaths and bloodshed had begun when Waruinge and his convoy snaked into the venue of the rally but police stopped him from addressing the rally at Darajani, using teargas canisters to disperse the crowd that had gathered.

What is common in all these papers is that chaos broke out. Hoodlums allied to Raila fought with hoodlums allied to Waruinge. Some people in the crowd had guns and fired at the police. I find it demagoguery at its best for Raila to come out and claim that his supporters were by-standers. Raila’s fanatical supporters have never been by-standers when it comes to violence. They thrive on it and live for it. It looks like Ndura was exploiting this aspect of Raila supporters. May be that is why Waruinge said that he was testing waters?

Demonsrators displaying a snake they had killed

Raila fanatic are known to suppress anybody with views that have not been approved by Raila. Many have fallen victim to Raila sanctioned violence. At one time or another, Anyang’ Nyong’o, Raphael Tuju, James Orengo and Shem Ochuodho have been forced to run for their lives. In all these cases Raila and Tingamanics run to claim that they were victimized.

Today it is the same story again. Railamaniacs are claiming that the Kibera killing are a systematic genocide against the Luo people. They point out to the 69 event where Kenyatta’s security men opened fire on the crowd in response to stones that were thrown at him. They also point out the recent referendum chaos in Kisumu.

Gor Sunguh with a bag of money. Such funds are used to oorganize youth groups at the grassroots.

Tingalettes claim that Tuju forced his way into Kisumu even though he knew there was to be trouble. In their opinion Tuju should have stayed away because Kisumu was a declared Orange zone where Raila had read the constitution and found it flawed and so the masses were not supposed to hear the other side of the story. I call this Odinga democracy. In this democracy only the Odingas and their errand boys (sorry for this gender bias. It is because I have never met a Railamaniac woman.) should speak.

In the Kisumu fracas, the press carried stories and pictures showing that Tinga maniacs had blocked the roads; stones cars and private property; attacked police stations; and even snatched a pistol from an injured cop. They were bold enough to pose for TV and print media cameras displaying their spoils of war. They expected to get away with it because theirs was a noble mission to stop Tuju from contaminating the masses.

Kisumu Polytechnic students display a pistol allegedly used to shoot one of their colleagues during a Yes campaign rally held at Moi Stadium at the weekend.

Okoth Osewe –a prominent pro-democracy activist- went online with a rant that blamed Tuju for provoking the people of Kisumu.

Osewe happened to be one of many prominent “democracy activists” to come out and condemn Tuju for tying to address a meeting in Kisumu. Osewe and his group said, “To protect four corrupt Ministers and a handful of sycophantic Assistant Ministers who were flown into the city in a chattered plane from Nairobi to address a near empty stadium, 3,000 armed policemen in full riot gear were mobilized to Kisumu. They were backed by several blood thirsty hika hika Para-military General Service Unit (GSU) officially trained to rape, humiliate, cripple, disable, scare, terrorize, maim and kill their targets using machine guns, batons and open hands.”

Tuju answered these Raila fanatics saying: "If what I stand for is so unpopular, why can't they let me address my two or three people? If they are so popular, why attempt to stop the rally?"

No Tuju. These hoodlums own democracy. They decide who should speak and when. Democracy happens to be anything that favors their god. They are quick to glorify violence as long as it is them who are dishing it.

Before that dreadful day in Kisumu, Tuju had been chased by Raila hoodlums like a chicken that is supposed to become a meal. Tuju was even prevented from addressing his constituents as Raila hoodlums unleashed terror. Around that same time, Khalwale’s vehicle was set on fire as Orange hoodlums unleashed terror. WHERE WERE THESE SO-CALLED DEMOCRATS? Not a single one of them came out to condemn

Kenyans have to address this issue of political. All the players in this game have blood on their hand. They have set brother against brother as they fight to control their tuff. We are only but foot soldiers who protect our political gods’ privilege to eat. Raila is as guilty has Waruinge. It is hypocritical of him to blame it wholesome on Waruinge when it is evident that he had a hand in the violence. How long will the poor continue to receive sh.100 in exchange of putting their lives on the line for the gods?

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Wolf in the Sheep’s clothing

A WOLF found great difficulty in getting at the sheep owing to the vigilance of the shepherd and his dogs.
One day it found the skin of a sheep that had been flayed and thrown aside, so it put it on over its own pelt and strolled down among the sheep.
The Lamb that belonged to the sheep, whose skin the Wolf was wearing, began to follow the Wolf in the Sheep’s clothing; so, leading the Lamb a little apart, he soon made a meal off her, and for some time he succeeded in deceiving the sheep, and enjoying hearty meals.